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NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s elections commission yesterday declared Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of
Kenya’s first president and one of the prime suspects in a case involving crimes against humanity,
to be the winner of the country’s presidential race amid growing allegations of vote fraud and a
refusal by the other leading contender to concede.

Kenyatta, who has been accused by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague
of bankrolling death squads during Kenya’s last election crisis, cleared the 50 percent threshold
and avoided a runoff by the thinnest of margins, about 8,000 votes out of 12 million, or 0.07
percent.

Kenyatta’s trial is set for July, which means Kenya, one of the United States’ closest allies in
Africa, could soon have a president commuting from The Hague, simultaneously trying to run a
country and keep himself out of jail.

Kenyatta has said he is innocent and will cooperate with the court, but in his acceptance speech
yesterday he signaled that he wanted the world to back off.

“We recognize and accept our international obligations,” he said. “However, we also expect that
the international community will respect the sovereignty and the democratic will of the people of
Kenya.”

But it was not clear what the will of the people really was. The second-place finisher, Raila
Odinga, Kenya’s prime minister, has refused to admit defeat and plans to appeal to Kenya’s Supreme
Court to overturn the results, which some independent observers said were sloppy and suspicious.
Odinga said there had been “rampant illegality” and “massive tampering” with the vote-tallying
process, the same problem that bedeviled Kenya’s last election in 2007. Odinga narrowly lost that
race and protested the results. Kenya exploded in political violence.

“We thought this would never happen again,” he said, referring to the fraud allegations.

But he urged his supporters to stay calm.

“We don’t want riots, property damage or any other kind of disturbance,” Odinga said. “Any
violence now could destroy this nation forever.”

Some of Odinga’s strongholds, like the sprawling Kibera slum, were tense yesterday, but there
were no reports of major violence.

Kenyatta’s victory poses unique challenges for the Obama administration, which increasingly
relies on Kenya as a strategic partner in a volatile region, yet, at the same time, has pledged to
support the International Criminal Court, though the U.S. is not a member.